Interviewing; It's one of those things that we all need to be good at but we very infrequently do. Something I've also noticed that pre-dental students are very concerned about when they apply is their interviews. There are literally hundreds of pieces of online advice for how to succeed in your dental school interviews and even courses and classes you can take. However, I have a slightly different view on how you should best prepare. In addition, if you want to be an attractive candidate for any professional school, you're likely going to have to interview for other positions before hand while gaining experience. This makes interviewing well an incredibly important life skill to possess, especially as a professional.
My entire premise for how to best prepare for any important interview is to practice. If I asked you to bake a cake for the president and you had only done it once before, you're probably going to want to practice. Interviewing is no different. But unlike many other skills, interviewing is not something that is very easy to practice on a day to day basis because the opportunity to interview doesn't arise on many occasions. However, this is easy to change if you choose to look at interviews in the way I do. An interview doesn't need to be thought of as an interview. An interview is simply a conversation where two (or perhaps more) people are meeting each other for the first time and want to become acquainted. By and large, this is very true and makes perfect sense. Think of applying to dental school like online dating, you've already submitted your application (your dating profile) and the school wants to interview you (the first date) to see if you will be a good match for the school and the school will be a good match for you. Again, this makes sense. If you've already read through someone's information, you have a good idea what they are like as a person, however, meeting them is the only real way to see just who they are.
Now that we've turned a huge, daunting interview into a simple introduction and conversation, how should you best practice? Well, in my personal experience, the best way to practice introductions and conversations is to meet new people. I'm not saying that every pre-dental student should head out to a bar tonight and try and start up a conversation, but it is an important skill to have. Not only is it important for interviewing, as future dentists we will be meeting new people every day and interpersonal skills are tremendously important for a good dentist. Still, you can target your audience. A great place to start is at school. This is a place where people share similar interests and will be conducive to creating conversation. What would be even better is if you can find out where the other pre-dental students hang out and start meeting them. This way you can also be asked and ask questions you would expect to encounter in a dental school interview. After all, the big "why are you interested in dentistry?," question is bound to come up and what better way to prepare for your interview by having to answer it a few dozen times in casual conversation.
If you've done what I've been talking about then perfect! You're well on your way to having a great interview day at your top choice dental schools. By now you've reduced the nerve wracking interview to a casual getting-to-know-you type conversation. Don't get me wrong, there are still many other important aspects to an interview, such as dressing professionally and having considered some of the more important reasons you want to become a dentist, however if you've mastered telling your story to strangers you're most of the way there.
Another little tip: see if any colleges or dental schools nearby offer mock interviews. These can be done just prior to your interviews to help you hone your skills and are absolutely invaluable. And most of all, remember to be yourself and have fun! Good luck and please feel free to leave any pieces of advice you have in the comments section below.
Photos courtesy of:
1) snagajob.com
2) Derrick McCann
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